March to the Sea
against Confederate General John Bell
Hood. On September 1, when Sherman
took the town of Jonesboro, 10 miles
south of Atlanta, he cut the city’s last
remaining rail link. However strong
Atlanta’s defenses may have been, Con-
federate forces risked another Vicksburg-
like catastrophe if they remained in the
city. Withdrawal was Hood’s only option.Sherman now controlled all of northern
Georgia. In his postwar memoirs, he set
the scene concisely: “By the middle of Sep-
tember, matters and things had settled
down in Atlanta, so that we felt perfectly
at home. The telegraph and railroads were
repaired, and we had uninterrupted com-
munication to the rear. The trains arrived
with regularity and dispatch and broughtus ample supplies.” Sherman had more
than 200,000 troops in his overall com-
mand around Atlanta, with slightly more
than 80,000 fighting men divided into five
corps, four infantry and one cavalry. These
were commanded by an unspectacular but
competent cadre of generals.
While he had triumphed at Atlanta,
Sherman still faced several daunting prob-CWQ-Sum16 Sherman's March_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:40 PM Page 65